Hoey is a Eurosceptic and libertarian, and has often rebelled against her party.[8] She was a prominent critic of the ban on handguns[9] and, in an interview in Sporting Gun magazine, voiced her support for fox hunting.[9] She has voted against government policy on the war in Iraq, foundation hospitals, university tuition and top-up fees, ID cards and extended detention without trial. She was a leading Labour rebel supporting a referendum on the EU Lisbon Treaty.[10] Hoey has also opposed the smoking ban in clubs and pubs, reclassification of cannabis from a Class B to Class C and originally opposed devolution. She also favours stricter controls on immigration, tougher welfare reform, withdrawal from the European Union, English Votes for English Laws, grammar schools, marriage tax allowances, free schools and academies. She is a critic of the BBC and she also spoke in support of the election of unionist MPs in Northern Ireland.

As the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Zimbabwe, Hoey was a vocal critic of the government of Robert Mugabe. In 2005, she called on Tony Blair to put diplomatic pressure on South Africa to condemn Zimbabwean government demolitions of townships, after an unsanctioned visit to the country.[11] The Zimbabwean government threatened to jail her if she repeated her "sneak" visit.[12]

In 2010, Hoey was described as "the least gay-friendly of all Labour MPs" by the Chief Executive of Stonewall.[13] However, she voted in favour of same-sex marriage in 2013.[14]

On 29 April 2008, it was announced that Hoey would form part of the team of Conservative Boris Johnson, should he become Mayor, as an unpaid non-executive director advising on sport and the 2012 Olympics.[15] The announcement was controversial both because Hoey had once said of London's Olympic bid "we don't deserve it and Paris does"[16] and because it could have been perceived as endorsing an election candidate from a rival party.[17]

Hoey advocated the United Kingdom should leave the European Union (EU) during the campaign for the EU membership referendum held on 23 June 2016. She pointed to Labour's earlier Eurosceptism "from Attlee to Foot" in The Independent and changes in European bodies since Jacques Delors' advocacy of a "social Europe" to refute the claim that Eurosceptism is a movement of the right.[18]

Originally active in Labour Leave as a co-chair, Hoey resigned in February 2016 following internal disagreements.[19] Soon afterwards she became active in Grassroots Out, along with UKIP leader Nigel Farage and George Galloway of the Respect Party.[20] In her borough of Vauxhall an estimated 78% voted to remain in the EU.[21][22] Her local Constituency Labour Party issued a statement in February 2017 saying that they believed she was insufficiently opposing Conservative government policy on child refugees and the residency rights of people from the EU after Britain leaves.[23]

In the following month, Hoey was one of 70 parliamentary signatories to a letter sent to the BBC director general Tony Hall, along with two Labour colleagues and many Conservative politicians, which was critical of the BBC for running stories they believed were biased against Brexit.[24] Since then she has continued to criticise the BBC, accusing them of being "embittered remainers" who were "taking delight" in "undermining our country". Fellow Labour MP Wes Streeting responded that it was Orwellian to expect broadcasters to "act as cheerleaders for the government".[25]

During an interview on BBC Radio 4's “Today” programme, in November 2017, Hoey commented that the Irish border problem – how to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, post-Brexit, whilst avoiding a border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK – would be solved if the Republic of Ireland also left the EU. Addressing Senator Neale Richmond, Fine Gael Spokesperson on European Affairs in the Senate of the Republic of Ireland, Hoey said: "We joined the EU together, you joined when we joined, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we leave and when we are very successful that you don’t start thinking about leaving as well".[26]

Hoey attracted criticism again from within the Labour Party and from Irish political figures in February 2018 after she described the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, as "unsustainable". These comments followed similar remarks by the Conservative politicians Daniel Hannan and Owen Paterson, who, like Hoey, favour a so-called "Hard Brexit" or "Clean Brexit". Simon Coveney, Ireland's Tánaiste (deputy head of government) and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade condemned the comments as "not only irresponsible but reckless". Owen Smith, the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland said the remarks by Hannan, Paterson and Hoey were a "concerted, transparent effort to undermine the GFA...driven by their blind, misplaced faith in Brexit" and was "reckless & utterly wrong".[27]

In July 2018 Hoey criticised Jo Swinson MP, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, for not voting in the parliamentary debate on the customs union amendment. This was despite Swinson being on maternity leave and having a formal pairing arrangement with the Conservative Party Chairman, Brandon Lewis (an arrangement which he broke under instruction from the Chief Whip and which led to calls for both Lewis and the Chief Whip to resign).[28]

On 17 July 2018, Hoey was one of five Labour MPs who defied the Labour whip to vote with the government on a Brexit amendment, which, if passed, would have required the UK to remain a member of a customs union with the EU in the event of no other arrangements on free trade and no arrangements for no hard border in Ireland, which otherwise the government would have lost possibly bringing it down. The government was against this amendment. Hoey, along with five other Labour MPs who supported Brexit, voted with the government against the amendment. [29][30] A few days later her Constituency Labour Party members passed a motion calling for the Labour whip to be withdrawn from Hoey and for her to become ineligible to be a future Labour party parliamentary candidate.[31]

Hoey is known for her objection to the Labour Government's ban of fox hunting: a rare position among Labour MPs.[32]

On 22 July 2005, Hoey was named the new chairman of the Countryside Alliance (a British group known for its pro-hunting stance).[33] She said the appointment was a "great honour and a great challenge". The Alliance's headquarters are in Hoey's Vauxhall constituency.[34] This appointment was controversial in the Labour Party as the Countryside Alliance was seen to be behind a campaign to unseat Labour MPs at the 2005 election. Hoey stepped down in 2015 saying "I am sad to be resigning after more than 9 years as Chairman of the Countryside Alliance. The organisation has achieved much in that time, but I will always be most proud that having joined when hunting faced such uncertainty, I leave with new generations queuing up to join the hunting field."[35]

In October 2013, Hoey was fined £240 for driving through a red light having previously criticised cyclists as "Lycra louts that run red lights".[38][39]
Hoey wants all cyclists to pay tax[38] and be registered so they have a registration number:

“

What I do genuinely think, and the cycling lobby should argue for it too, is that everyone who rides a bicycle, particularly as a form of transport to work, should be registered, so their bike has a registration number. At the moment if someone does knock down an old lady and ride off no one can trace that person.[38]

^Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons, Westminster (15 September 2004). "Hansard text". Parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2010.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)